I'm hoping so, if only to make the welding effort worthwhile. Welding overhead while lying on the floor wasn't exactly fun. And welding only an inch below the roof was a little unnerving (lots of wet towels on top of the roof help allay my fears a little). I was going to have quite a few bolt-together joints when I started but ended up welding the lot. Even though the cage is fully welded, it's only bolted to the floorpan - I couldn't bring myself to weld it to the shell in case one day I want to restore it as a road car.

It should be finished tomorrow, paint it up, get the dash back in and book it in for a logbook inspection next week. Hopefully it all falls into place before I head off to Bathurst on the 23rd.

How good are nice shiny new windscreens. How bad is losing all the random scrutineers stickers and coloured stick-on dots that plastered the old screen from nearly 10 years of motorsport events.

I've gotten away with running an old tempered glass screen all this time (should have replaced it with a laminated one years ago to be 100% compliant with CAMS requirements). And even better, no rust around the windscreen opening when I popped the old one out !

Old one was pretty hard, I'd bought a new Datsport one anyway so it went in.

I'm pretty sure the old screen and rubber were the originals that were fitted when it rolled off the production line.

Just as well I planned on replacing the screen, I would have had to remove it anyway as I couldn't get the dash frame back in past the roll cage. It ended up having to go in from the front of the car, through the windscreen area. What little was left of the frame anyway, after I had to "trim" it to fit around the front legs of the cage.

It was a little amusing dropping it off at the windscreen place :

Me: Its parked out the front.Windscreen guy : No tricks to driving it ?Me: Brakes aren't too great when cold, and not boosted. Windscreen guy : We'll just bring it into the workshop then do an inspection and circle any damage on the paperwork before you go...Windscreen guy goes outside and gets the car...Windscreen guy : Never mind about the existing damage inspection, we'll just circle the whole car.

Bahahahah...You touched on an interesting part of designing a roll cage though Dave. Making sure other items can be serviced around it. Care to share any others?I was thinking of making my cage through the A-pillars and cutting up my dash to suit (within reason). Anything I should be aware of when I get to that path?

1. Plan Ahead. Measure twice, cut once. And all those other sayings your father has.

2. I couldn't get the dash frame in around the roll cage / steering wheel / steering column. I may have managed it if I took the steering wheel off, but since the front screen was coming out, I didn't bother with the steering wheel. I couldn't find a way to do the dash frame "nicely", there will be lots of cutting if you run the roll cage down the A-pillar.

3. Try to ensure you don't have to cut both the dash pad and the dash fascia. I had to cut semi-circles out of both, if the front legs were slightly forward or back I could have gotten away with only cutting one or the other.

4. My best tip - remove the brackets on the inside of the shell that the bottom corners of the dash frame bolts onto. I fiddled around for ages to work out how to do things with these brackets in place, but couldn't do what I wanted so ended up drilling the spot welds out and taking the brackets off, was going to bolt them back on but ended up making new brackets that attached to the roll cage legs with hose clamps. Removing these brackets allowed me to move the cage backwards and / or drop the main hoop downwards for ease of welding, with the brackets still on, they "locked" the cage between the firewall and the bracket.

5. It seemed a simple thing, but the window net mounting bar caused me lots of headaches. Initially, I ran it between tabs welded to the inside of the cage (ie on the driver's side of the cage), but then the last bit of bracing I welded in got in the way. I couldn't run it outside the cage (between the shell and the cage) as the cage was too tight to the shell around the A-pillar. I ended up with the front mounting on the inside of the cage, and the rear mounting on the outside, with the window net bar crossing under the top of the cage. I'm hoping the CAMS scrutineer will be OK with this - American regs say it must run outside the cage but I can't find any detail in the Aus regs. Oh yeah, allow for the mandatory roll cage padding as well when working it all out......

6. Work out how to do the rear harness bar if you're putting it back near the rear bulkhead between the cage backstays. I couldn't do it and still meet all of the following requirements :

The driver's side is good, but the passenger side just doesn't work. I would have had the same issue with Driver's side if I ran dual diagionals between the rear legs, but I only ran one from just behind driver's head down to the mounting foot on the passenger backstay. If I ever need to have a passenger harness, I'll buy one that will wrap around the other harness bar I have in the main hoop.

7. Get a copy of Schedule J of the CAMS manual and read it over and over. I went as far as making notes on anything that I thought related to me.

Now that its done, I'm pretty happy for a first attempt. 2nd attempt would be better in a lot of small ways, but it seems very comprehensive.

Upper guard mounting bolt makes a handy place to attach a bracket for the remote electrical cutoff pull

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And the radio spot makes a good mounting point for the 6 pole electrical cutoff switch. As per CAMS regs, the switch will both disconnect the battery and also stop the engine. Battery was easy - run cable from +ve terminal of battery to switch, the from other side of switch to starter motor. Ignition cut is by inserting another two poles on the switch in the +ve feed to the dizzy.

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Last pic reminds me - I should take the carving knife back up into the kitchen before the wife gets home from India. Does a good job on roll cage padding though !

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